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INTRODUCTION
 
We are worried about you. Yes, you—you with the ashen face, pale lips, and expression of dazed horror.
 
The election is over, and you have just been presented with one of the more severe diagnoses of your lifetime: Bush won. You must suffer through four more years.
 
Now what? Despair? Despondency? Grief?
 
In truth, if you are to adjust to your fate, there are four stages you will need to pass through.
 
The first stage is denial: “It didn’t really happen. It couldn’t have. Kerry won. If I close my eyes hard and open them again, I’ll wake up. This is a bad dream.”
 
No, it’s reality. Get used to it. You have to live in the real world, because if you don’t, things will stop making sense and only get worse.
 
For example, denial may lead you to forget the facts of your past and replace them with a fantasy, like the one in which you’re a military hero instead of a draft dodger. Or even worse, you may become delusional about your finances, spending wildly beyond your means and racking up so much debt that there’s no hope of ever repaying it.
 
The second stage is anger—irrational, self-righteous fury. You’ll have to fight to restrain it. Unchecked, it may lead you to trash people’s constitutional rights or become paranoid enough to attack them in order to preempt future harm. You might even go as far as destroying the very place you live, through a deranged effort to control it.
 
Even worse, you may declare war on a country that just happens to bother you.
 
The third stage is a kind of bland stupidity. Here you lose control of even the most basic intellectual faculties. The first sign is that you stop reading books and newspapers. In fact, the only way you’ll seek any outside information is secondhand, through friends who are afraid of you.
 
Soon, you’ll lose the ability to pronounce multi-syllabic words—or even construct basic sentences. At its worst, during this phase you’ll even lose bodily functions, like the ability to swallow pretzels without gagging.
 
The final, and thus most important, stage is coping and recovery. That’s what this book is about.
 
This is no time for denial, anger, or stupidity. Other people have perfected those traits, and you won’t be able to compete. Instead, this is the moment to grasp reality, get past rage, smarten up, and choose a course of action.
 
Many choices are provided here: You can escape to another country or get a new hobby. You can campaign for Bush’s replacement or run for office yourself. You can listen to music, watch movies, or read a book. You can take a pill, take a voyage, or take time off. You can eat, drink, or store your blood in a hospital. You can hypnotize yourself into believing that someone else is president, or you can Google authority.
 
Whatever you choose, remember that you’re not alone. Nearly every thinking person in this country is now suffering from a form of postelection stress disorder.
 
That’s why this book can help. Read it thoroughly. Take some action. Create a community of like-minded citizens. But you must do something for your soul, for your country, and for the soul of your country.
 
Gene Stone and the Bush Survival Bible Team:
 
Carl Pritzkat
Tony Travostino
Christopher Barillas
Sarah Albert
Miranda Spencer
 
November 2004
 
 
6 Tips to Maintain Your Sanity
 
Judith Orloff
 
Judith Orloff, M.D., the author of Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear into Vibrance, Strength, & Love (Harmony Books, 2004), is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA. Visit her website at www. judithorloff.com.
 
Before you do anything else, make sure you stay sane. Sanity is more important than ever, so follow these tips.
 
Don’t let yourself be overcome with fear. Bush won because he played the fear card—he ran on fear; he rules on fear. But fear creates negative energy—in you and in others around you. Don’t feed into this outright manipulation of your emotions. Just say no to fear. Instead, feel joy, or hope, or love. Don’t let them make you feel afraid.
 
Guard against energy vampires. These are people who suck your energy dry. Instead of talking to people who are stuck on the negatives surrounding the election, surround yourself with positive people who can talk about how to create change.
 
Counter the stress. Try a three-minute break. Take a breath, close your eyes, inhale, exhale, and if negative thoughts occur, focus on the breath and visualize something very positive, such as a free world, or peace, or a good president.
 
Avoid techno-despair. Don’t be overwhelmed by information overload. Take some breaks from CNN and online news now and then. You’re not a news anchor. You don’t need to know what’s going on every minute.
 
Stay in the now. Instead of catastrophizing about the future, focus on the here and now. Be kind to yourself. Take a moment off. Look around at the sky, the birds, and the sunlight. Think about something other than the presidency.
 
Always be of anonymous service. Keep giving. Spread the energy around. Leave small amounts of money in public places. Create happy surprises for others. Don’t just wait for the big opportunities, or you may never do anything at all.
 
7 Points from the Left of Liberal
 
Robert Anbian
 
Poet and journalist Robert Anbian is the founder of ProtestWorks.com, a propaganda enterprise spreading peace and justice messages while donating profits to activists. He has published four poetry collections, most recently WE Parts 1 & 2 (Night Horn Books, 1999) and Blame the Powerful (War&Peace Press, 2004). He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Nona Bailey.
 
Be politically nonsectarian. Embrace the broadest possible front of all sane and fair-minded people in resistance to the rising tide of war, terror, and oppression. We have to reject the right-wing nuts once and for all. There are many sane and fair-minded conservatives, middle-of-the-roaders, and usually-don’tgive-a-damners who will join this effort.
 
Don’t despair. Don’t give up. Don’t get disgusted with politics. Politics is how a society makes up its mind. There’s no reason the process should be any more neat, calm, or noble than your own mind’s processes. So stop whining, hitch up your pants, and get on with it.
 
Resist and oppose. Get active. You are not required to be a saint, an ideologue, a purist, or a full-time activist to make a difference. You need to do whatever is in your power that is realistic and sustainable and has a chance of having practical effect. You’ll feel a lot better for doing it.
 
Forget being apologetic for preaching to the choir. It’s called energizing the base, and it’s just as important for progressives as for right-wing nuts.
 
Get involved before and beyond elections. Bush the Junior’s reelection is proof ours is a managed democracy at best. By the time elections roll around, the fix is more or less in. Pay special attention to senators and congresspeople who are voting year-round. Write yours at least twice a year, especially when major issues are at stake. Attend at least one hometown appearance by your senator or representative; ask him or her a question; hand him or her one of your letters. If you visit Washington, make an appointment, even if only to speak to an aide. Form letters, circular e-mails, and the like have some effect, but the personal touch counts. If your senator and representative are good folk, don’t go to sleep on supporting them. Look for a contested congressional district or a Senate seat in your region that might swing progressive and give whatever money, time, or other support you can.
 
Don’t cooperate with unwarranted, intrusive, and intimidating police action. You don’t have to answer anyone’s questions or show them anything, and if you are being held or compelled in any way, remember that you have the right to a lawyer.
 
Don’t lose your joy. Here, now, in the life we live, are all the rejuvenating experiences that give us hope: love, sensual pleasure, the snap of understanding, the magic of imagination, collective struggle. In joy are the reasons and means to reject fear, hate, poverty, and the terrors of war. No shit.
 
At a party a man came up to Texas governor George W. Bush and said, “Have you heard the latest George W. Bush joke?”
 
Governor Bush said, “I’m George W Bush.”
 
The man said, “Oh, I’ll tell it slowly.”
 
BUSHISM:
 
“Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.”
 
—LaCrosse, Wisconsin, October 18, 2000